In an article on this week's scripture passage, Will Willimon, retired Bishop in the Methodist church, writes: "Americans are lovers of the now and the new, lurching excitedly from one new technology to the next..... We want faith that is living, personal, and appropriate to the times in which we live. Is it good to think of faith as gift from the past? Must we submit to our ancestors in order to have faith?"
It's worth considering. To ponder the message of centuries-old sacred writings is an odd, peculiar, counter-cultural activity, but it's even more counter-cultural to allow scripture to question us. In doing so, it's as if we say, "I have faith that these ancient Jews, who lived in a time so different from our time, know more about God than we do."
In our more honest moments, we're grateful that when it comes to faith, we don't have to reinvent the wheel. The journey of faith does not begin with us; it will not end with us. There is appropriate humility in this. The challenge is to let our inherited faith serve as fertile soil from which we grow rather than a desert landscape in which we wither and die.
We'll explore it in depth this weekend by reading this passage. We'll also celebrate communion, enjoy great music and start the new school year with our youth and children. It should be a great day.
Come, and bring a friend.
PS: The 8:45 a.m. Chapel service re-starts this week. We'll kick it off with excellent choral music. Also, at 9:30 a.m., award-winning author Wiley Cash will speak in the Fellowship Hall.
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Worship Services this Sunday (click for bulletins)
It's worth considering. To ponder the message of centuries-old sacred writings is an odd, peculiar, counter-cultural activity, but it's even more counter-cultural to allow scripture to question us. In doing so, it's as if we say, "I have faith that these ancient Jews, who lived in a time so different from our time, know more about God than we do."
